Giants stumble into All Star Break with blowout loss to Padres

The Major League Baseball All Star Break is widely regarded as the most boring week of the year for sports fans. There’s nothing to keep you occupied beyond the All Star festivities, so fanatics have to resort to doing normal things instead of watching sports.

You can watch the Home Run Derby (backbackbackbackback) and the actual game, but it won’t save you from boredom. Sorry.

– Start watching a new television series, or catch up on one you forgot about. I watched the entire fifth season of Breaking Bad in the last few days, so maybe I’ll catch up on Sons of Anarchy next

– Clean around the house. There’s got to be some cobwebs in the skylights or dust collecting on the floor moldings

– Say “hello” to your spouse or significant other

– Take up cooking

– Nap a lot

How the Giants will spend their All Star Break is another question entirely. We already know that Bruce Bochy will be managing and Buster Posey, Marco Scutaro and Madison Bumgarner will be in New York to play for World Series home field advantage. And today we found out what most of us already expected: Sergio Romo will be on the team as well.

For the rest of the Giants, our only hope is they take it a little easier than they did last night.

Tim Lincecum’s no-hitter was a lot of fun. Giants fans have been incredibly lucky to see so many spectacular moments over the last several years — between two no-hitters, a perfect game and two World Series championships, there’s been plenty of days to celebrate.

Today was nothing like those days.

Barry Zito only survived 2.0 innings, and I use the term “survived” loosely — he gave up three towering home runs, two of which surfaced in the left field upper deck. Zito probably wasn’t a fan of Laz Diaz’s strike zone, either, which is not to say a wider zone would have saved him, but all three of the homers came on get-it-in fastball mistakes after a lot of Zito-esque nibbling.

The smoke is starting to clear on the whole Zito/Lincecum/neither rotational quandry for next year. Aside from the apparent turnaround Lincecum seems to be enjoying, he offers a level of consistency that Zito cannot. The juxtaposition of Lincecum’s historic accomplishment last night and Zito’s atrocious outing today speaks volumes.

While Zito was bad, the bullpen wasn’t much better when it counted. Jake Dunning, Javier Lopez and George Kontos combined to allow seven hits and six runs in three innings of immediate relief. The most important bright spot of the group was Santiago Casilla, who allowed only one hit in his first inning since returning from the disabled list.

I’m not going to speculate about why, but the Giants seemed rather disinterested once the wheels came off (/drink) in the third inning. The timing really couldn’t have been worse if you were looking to see a win today (don’t feel bad, I was too): the hangover from Lincecum’s no-no last evening + last game before the All Star Break = the kind of effort you’d see from a high school student on the final day of Fall semester.

So they didn’t get the sweep fans were so desperately hoping for going into the break. They still took 3-of-4 from the Friars and snuck a no-hitter in to exorcise the demons Homer Bailey left behind.

Enjoy the next few days off, guys. The homestand to close out July may spell the rest of the Giants’ season, for better or for worse.

About the Author

Kyle McLorg (formerly Ruthless Sports Guy) is a Candlestick Kid, and that passion shines through in his writing now. When he's not picking apart the 49ers, Sharks and Giants, you can find him trying to keep his dog (half-wolf) out of trouble at the dog park. Follow him on Twitter @Kyle_McLorgBASG.

A thud? really? When you win 3 of 4 games on the road against a division rival & you include a no-hitter, you cannot call it a thud.

The Giants have played exceptionally well against their divisional rivals. The Giants still have a bunch of games left against the Padres, Rockies, etc. So, the Giants does line up in the their favor and I can see a strong push over the next few weeks.

Thud! The sound of the Giants plopping back to Earth after the high of a no no. They DID take 3 of 4, which is a positive, but this team just doesn't seem to have any real constitution, or emotional endurance. The Padres may be the worst team in baseball, and the Giants shouldn't be losing to them like that on such a combined ghastly effort of pitching. C'mon, weak sauce.

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